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The best orientation for a bed in any bedroom depends on several factors, such as available floor space, architectural features and personal preference. When arranging bedroom furniture, you should first position the largest piece -- the bed -- and arrange additional furniture around it. Incoming natural light and window construction can also influence where you place your bed.

Traditional Placement

In traditional bedroom layouts, the bed is perpendicular to the longest wall, centered, with the headboard facing the room's interior. But sometimes windows or doors interrupt a continuous wall, making it impossible to center your bed on it. You can solve this design problem by positioning your bed off-center on the longest wall or angling the headboard in a corner. Avoid putting the bed in front of a window unless you have no other decorating options. It blocks the outdoor view and may create an uneasy feeling of vulnerability. Any sliver of incoming natural light, whether bright sunshine or moonlight, can prove annoying if you're a light sleeper. In addition, on chilly nights, cold drafts may seep in through poorly insulated windows.

Focal Point

When you have a natural focal point in a bedroom, such as a wall of windows or a stunning fireplace, position your bed so it's facing the special feature. By placing a bed so it faces oversized windows with a spectacular outdoor view, you can enjoy the scenery immediately upon awakening or while you're lounging in bed. Turning a bed toward a fireplace lets you soak in the visual serenity, whether your fireplace is a traditional wood-burning one or modern gas.

Feng Shui

Feng shui is a Chinese system that integrates a person's relationships with his surroundings to achieve maximum harmony with believed spiritual forces. When you incorporate the feng shui philosophy into your bedroom furniture arrangement, the best orientation for your bed is in a "command position." This means your bed should be positioned to face the doorway from a corner or wall opposite the door or perpendicular to a wall that's adjacent to the door. But even though you place your bed in the "right position" according to feng shui decorating principles, it may still feel "wrong." How the bed placement feels to you trumps the feng shui guidelines, because a particular rule may simply not apply to you.

Small Bedrooms

The available space in a small bedroom may dictate the best orientation for your bed. Professional interior design spacing guidelines recommend leaving a minimum two-foot clearance around the exposed perimeter of a bed and at least three feet in front of sliding doors. If a bedroom corner is the only practical area to place your bed, position the headboard diagonally across the corner so the bed faces outward into the room to leave a walking path on either side. For extremely small bedrooms, you might be forced to nestle the bed into a corner with the headboard and one side shoved against adjacent walls.

About the Author

Mary Cockrill's education and certifications in interior design and home staging have allowed her to author numerous home-related articles. Cockrill has been a top design consultant for a renowned home store and is the owner of Starwood Home & Gifts, LLC, an interior design, decorating and home staging business. She holds a Bachelor of Science in secondary education with a comprehensive major in office administration.